Without a doubt the most studied character in the New Testament next to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, would have to be the apostle Paul. Who is this Paul that he should be the object of so much study, and what is it about Paul that qualifies him as the major writer of the New Testament? For it is from the four Gospels that we get our understanding of the life and ministry of Jesus, but it is from Paul that we get much of our doctrine concerning the life and ministry of the Christian. Of the twenty-seven books that make up the New Testament canon, if you were to include Hebrews as one also authored by Paul, it would mean that he wrote more than half of them—fourteen in total.Born in Tarsus in the region of Celica, Paul was a contemporary of Jesus, though it would be safe to say that the two never met in person during the earthly ministry our Lord. That Paul, on at least the one occasion, recorded for us in Acts, claimed his rights as a citizen of Rome, would suggest the possibility that he was so, from his mother’s side of the family. As a Jew growing up under the influence of typical Jewish instruction, Paul would begin a study of the Scriptures at age five, and by age ten he would begin a study of the legal traditions. At thirteen years of age a Jewish boy became a bar mitzvah ("son of the commandment"), at which time the more promising ones would be directed to rabbinical schools for further study. The fact that we know Paul came to study under Gamaliel; one of the most prominent teachers of that day; is a clear indication of his early ability and possible parental influence.
From such a focused upbringing it is easy to see why by his own admission, Paul had a zealous fervor unsurpassed in his living a life in accordance to the Law. For a Pharisee such as Paul, this did not mean only following the Ten Commandments; there was much more to it than that. These religious leaders had come up with 613 rules comprised of 248 commands and 365 prohibitions. On top of this they bolstered these rules with 1,521 emendations!
Later Paul would write that as for keeping the Law he was blameless. This is not to mean that he kept the Law perfectly; for only Jesus did that; rather in areas where he missed out on keeping the Law, he could not be blamed for doing so. It is precisely this passionate ebullience in everything he did that fueled his relentless pursuit to bring to a quick and painful end those following the teachings of a recently crucified criminal named Jesus.
Such a reaction to this uprising is not as unusual as it might sound to a modern Westerner’s ears. One only has to look into the events of Jewish history to more fully understand Paul’s motivation for eliminating another radical sect that threatened Jewish peace, and God’s blessings on their nation. The one thought at the forefront of every Jew’s mind was the coming of the Messiah, and if Jesus was obviously not the one because of His criminal execution, then it was important not to inhibit God from sending the "real Messiah" to free them from Roman dominance.
The Jews have a long history of such subjugation. Almost from their very inception, because of their constant disobedience to the very Jehovah-God who raised them up, He has made them slaves to one nation after another. This stiff-necked people would cry out in repentance to God for a deliverer to free them from their oppression, and God would answer them time and time again, only to have them forget the God who delivered them, causing them to fall back into their bondage inducing sin. Inter-Testament history proves to be no different. Revolts stirred up during the time of the Maccabees and even more recently to Paul’s time, trouble surfaced through bands of Zealots attempting to bring freedom from their Roman oppressors.
Of course, Jesus was not the first to come on the scene and claim to be the long awaited Messiah, but His claims were so different from any other and He was gathering a larger following after His crucifixion from people emphatically proclaiming His resurrection from the dead! As far as Paul was concerned, it was for the Glory of God that this band of disciples had to be stopped quickly before it spread out of control!
We are first introduced to Paul in the Scriptures at the stoning of a disciple named Stephen. There is much disagreement among scholars about the significance of those who did the stoning throwing their coats at the feet of Paul. Some go so far as to suggest that Stephen’s prayer for their forgiveness just before he died, was influential in Paul’s conversion. If anything, it seemed to make him all the more determined to quell these heretics. Acts 8:3 indicates this. "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hailing men and women committed them to prison." Furthermore, Acts 9:1,2 in almost a descriptive understatement gives us a glimpse into the passionate, single-minded blindness with which he pursued this quest. "And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem."
James Stalker in our textbook, Life of Paul, points out that the journey to Damascus was over one hundred and sixty miles and it would take about six days to complete the trip. He suggests that that gave Paul much reflective time to contemplate his actions against the followers of Jesus, and their reaction to his persecution. Did the recent events soften him up during this trip? One can only speculate what was going through that genius mind of his. The fact that he was travelling during the heat of the noonday when others would normally take shelter from the sun is a sign of someone clearly possessed with purpose. This single statement would strongly support the belief that Paul was not wavering in his mind.
In the oft familiar re-telling of the details concerning Paul’s conversion experience on that Damascus road trip and knowing its result after the fact, we must not fail to see the significance of the Sovereignty of God in action, over what took place. There are some who would argue that Paul was free to choose to follow the Lord or not, after his effulgent encounter with the risen Christ. They claim that to be otherwise would violate Paul’s "free will" and would make him nothing more than a robot, doing what he is programmed. Of course that is absurd. We know the Scriptures don’t teach that we are robots. Instead, they teach us that we are clay! The fact that God had prepared Paul and molded his life from birth for that very hour is indisputable. The fact that God prepares each one of us and molds our life from birth for the very hour we are in is just as indisputable.
Each one of us can look back on the events that God brought us through to bring us to Himself with the same hindsight we have with Paul. Not many of us have as dramatic of a "Damascus Road experience" as Paul did, but we all can recite circumstances orchestrated for the final effect of our salvation. We were blind to what was happening at the time, and it is only after He opened our eyes to the Truth, that we could see with understanding, God’s purpose in it at all. God is not impotent in the lives of His creation. He would not leave something as important as our salvation up to the fickle will of man. Do you suppose God is powerless over the capricious will of man? Do you suppose that God had another man as a back up, just in case Paul rejected his Sovereign invitation? Or that someone else could have given us the New Testament writings other than Paul? My response to all of these rhetorical questions is an emphatic no.
I am convinced without a doubt that, the details of Paul’s life was purposed by God. That Paul’s background was a preparation molding his personality; that his training was planned before the ages to sharpen his mind so that he could write the letters that make up the majority of our New Testament Scriptures today. I believe the zeal with which he persecuted the church accomplished the double task of spreading the Gospel further, and to establish the plan of our God, who would prove through the chiefest of sinners, the extent and power of His Grace to save to the uttermost.
It is good that we make it a point to study what we can know about the life and ministry of this great apostle of God, named Paul. Indeed, to do so gives us much insight into how God dealt with Paul, with the purpose that we can more clearly see God dealing everyday, in every circumstance with our lives. We may not be called to preach the Gospel on foreign mission fields. We may not ever have to proclaim the truth before kings and magistrates, but the same God who separated Paul from his mother’s womb to be an example of a dedicated life served in obedience to Jesus Christ, also will accomplish His purpose in us for His own Glory!—Of that we can be sure!
AMEN.
